


The Perks of Being Italian

by Kitkatkimble



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: 5+1 Things, F/M, Gen, Gestures, M/M, Nico your Italian is showing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-23
Updated: 2014-10-23
Packaged: 2018-02-22 07:45:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2500085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kitkatkimble/pseuds/Kitkatkimble
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>or, in which Nico di Angelo is a public hazard and should be stopped.</p>
<p>Five times Nico's gesticulating was dangerous, and the one time it wasn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Perks of Being Italian

1.

It was morning. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, demigods were getting their butts kicked by Clarisse. All in all, a pleasant and normal day at Camp Half-Blood.

It would be pleasanter, Jason thought, with Piper. Well, alright, maybe pleasant wasn’t the right word, but it would be more fun and he hadn’t seen her in a while. So after arriving with a backpack of stuff and a shirt that stunk to high Hades, he made his way to the cabins to find his girlfriend.

He was just coming up to the cabins from the Big House when he spotted Nico di Angelo talking very intently with Will Solace, complete with excited gestures and laughter.

Holding back a grin, he decided to surprise Nico.

He was a few metres away when Will spotted him, and for a moment Jason thought that he would give the game away, but he just winked and went back to listening to Nico.

“Hey, Nico!” Jason called, going in for a surprise attack hug!

Only to have Nico’s gesticulating hand come around full force to smack him in the face.

From that point on Jason was only really sure of two things: firstly, that Nico was apologising more than he’d ever heard him _speak_ before, and secondly, his head really fucking hurt.

When he woke up again in the infirmary, Will informed him (while laughing his arse off, the jerk) that he’d hit his head on a brick on the way down and knocked himself unconscious.

“Piper’s outside,” he said, regaining control of his lungs. “Nico’s busy apologising to her, too.”

“Please tell me I’m not the only one he’s done that to.”

Will snickered. “Not the only one to get smacked in the face, no. But the only one to get knocked out from it.”

Jason sighed and rubbed the back of his head, before Will swatted his hand away. “Just my luck.”

 

2. 

Hazel didn’t often spend time at Camp Half-Blood, other than to see her brother. Sometimes she took advantage of their facilities (although the rock wall was a bit overkill, she thought. Lava? Really?) and used the woods to practice her magic in unfamiliar terrain, but otherwise, she only visited to see Nico.

Who was halfway up that damn climbing wall. Of course.

“Don’t tell me you think that’s a good idea,” she called up, and Nico turned to dangle off and wave at her.

“Join me,” he offered, and with a grin, she relented.

It took her a while to get up to his position, due to the shifting rocks, but eventually she perched on a convenient ledge and smiled at him.

“How are you?”

He shrugged, readjusting his grip so that he had one hand free. “I’m… okay. Still, you know, adjusting.”

“To being at camp?”

“To being around people 24/7.”

They shared a laugh and she swung her legs, giving him a sly look. “A little birdie told me you’ve been spending a lot of time at the infirmary. Having a lot of accidents, are we?”

Nico went red as a brick and brought his hands up to wave wildly and defensively. “No, it’s nothing like – crap!”

She let out a shriek as he dropped like a stone, before he shadow travelled mid-air and popped out in the shadow of the trees lining the area.

“Nico di Angelo!”

“I’m sorry!”

 

3. 

“So, Nico.” Piper slid across the bench and propped her elbows on her knees, giving Nico her best eyebrow wiggle. “I have a proposal for you.”

He gave her a suspicious look and put down the grapefruit he was dissecting.

“I have here – ” she whipped out a sheet of paper “ – the official Aphrodite cabin list of butt ratings.”

“You what now?”

“You heard me.” Grinning, she passed it over to him, glancing around at the other tables.

He read it dubiously then looked back up at her. “And you are telling me this, why?”

“Because down the bottom you will notice that we have rated Will Solace at a solid 8.3, and I wanted to offer my congratulations.”

It was lucky Nico had stopped eating, because it looked as though he was about to choke. “We aren’t – ”

Piper was many things, but she was not stupid, and she was a child of Aphrodite. Romance and attraction were things that she naturally understood, and if Nico was going to tell her she was misreading the signs, then he was in for a long lecture. “Yeah, sure you aren’t. But if you _really_ aren’t, _yet,_ then I’m just going to leave this here. 8.3, Nico. You don’t just let an 8.3 go.”

She moved to stand, but froze as Nico abruptly tugged at the hem of her shirt. It was the casual familiarity, above anything else, that made her slide back onto the bench next to him.

“Yeah?”

Flustered, Nico made a few vague gestures with his hands. “Um, what’s the scale out of?”

“Ten,” she said with a smirk. “You’ll notice that it goes up to eleven for some people.”

Meaning, Reyna.

“I noticed,” said Nico, pulling a face. “But how is Will only an eight?”

“Oh? You think he should be higher?”

He was red as a beetroot, but drew a suggestive curve in the air regardless. “I’m just saying.”

They were on the edge of the ring of tables, and most of the other campers were busy with their food, but that didn’t stop several others whistling and calling out. Piper flipped them off and patted Nico on the head consolingly as he slipped under the table.

“I’ll bump him up to a nine,” she said cheerfully, before taking off and winking at the subject of their conversation.

 

4.

“No, no, _sapere_ and _conoscere_ aren’t like Ancient Greek, it’s about different types of knowledge, not how you know it. It’s like the difference between knowing about something and knowing of something.” Nico scratched his head with one hand, using his sword to poke idly at the bushes with the other. “ _Sapere_ is when you know a fact, I guess, or you know how to do something.”

“So _conoscere_ is when you know about something?” Annabeth frowned. “Or is it the other way around? This seems very inconvenient.”

Nico shrugged. “It makes sense if you speak it. _Conoscere_ is people and places, so…” He looked around and pointed to one of the other team’s defenders. “I know Cecil, so I use _conoscere._ ”

“But if you were to say you know _how to_ stop Cecil from getting the flag, you would use _sapere._ ”

He smiled at Annabeth and nodded, flinging his hand out and clicking his fingers. “Exa – look out!”

A blast of fire exploded next to them from where Nico had gestured, and they threw themselves out of the way as flames licked at where they were standing.

“Really? Proximity traps?” Annabeth yelled out, and got a few snickers in response. “You _know_ you aren’t supposed to use anything lethal!”

“Define lethal!”

“Don’t think I don’t recognise a Stoll when I hear one!”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.” Nico rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and offered her a hand up. “At least we know where it is?”

“Now they know where we are. Save the apologies, let’s go! I refuse to lose a capture the flag battle to Percy.”

They didn’t lose, but only because the Stolls were too busy laughing about Annabeth and Nico’s faces to remember that they had a flag to guard.

 

5.

“Don’t touch it, you’ll make it worse,” Annabeth scolded, slapping Piper’s inquisitive hand away. “Hold on, we’re nearly there.”

“I know where the infirmary is,” Piper said patiently. Really, Annabeth was a lot more worried about the burn than she was, but maybe that was because Piper had spent a lot of time around Leo. A certain disregard for fire and flames came with the program.

“Yeah, you do, I’m sorry.” Annabeth frowned at her. “But don’t scratch. And I’m only saying that because if Will sees you do it then he’ll get even bossier than me.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, you’re not bossy.” Piper narrowed her eyes and cracked her knuckles, rolling her head so that her spine produced an almighty crack. “And if anyone says otherwise I’ll sic Clarisse on them.”

“Who is Clarisse attacking?” Will was leaning on the door into the med bay, eyebrow raised. He saw her arm and winced, motioning for her to come in.

“Doesn’t matter.” Annabeth patted Piper on the shoulder and smiled, before leaving her in the capable hands of one Will Solace.

Who already had company.

“Oh my god, what happened to your hand?!” she cried, seeing the rather impressive set of bandages winding around Nico’s hand. He was perched on the end of one of the beds, wincing and rubbing at the cloth, although Piper noticed that he stopped any time Will so much as looked in his general direction. Huh.

“It’s nothing,” he said, and absolutely totally did not pout. “Accidents happen.”

“He slammed his hand into a wall and broke three fingers,” Will said, coming over with burn salve and a grin. “Which should teach him not to go flailing wildly when he’s talking and nearly giving people black eyes.”

“I did not!” Nico slammed a hand out in protest, before realising what he’d done and curling up again. “Oh, shut up,” he said in response to their laughter.

“Nico, you are a public hazard, admit it,” Piper laughed. “You’re worse than Leo.”

“Now that’s just insulting.”

 

+1.

“Someone get Jason.”

“Why do you want Jason? Get Hazel.”

“She’s in New Rome you dumbshit, now go get Jason.”

“Where are the Apollo kids when we need them?”

“Oh my gods guys, just get Jason! I swear, you’re all useless.”

There was a brief kerfuffle, until Travis Stoll stepped forward and shoved the others out of the way. “Oi, Connor, come help me take him to the infirmary.”

Nico glared at him and shook off the helping hand, then opened his mouth and moved it around a lot. Nothing came out.

“Yeah, you can’t speak.” Travis grinned wickedly. “How’d it happen? Is it something we can replicate?”

Nico pinched his fingers together and placed them at his temple. He then made a talking hand, then pointed to the sky, rolling his eyes.

“Cursed, gotcha. Do you think the Hecate cabin could do it? Lou Ellen’s pretty handy with curses now.”

Nico flipped him the bird and was promptly dragged away by Connor.

The walk to the infirmary was mostly Nico complaining (one hand, fingers together, moving from outstretched to the palm; fingers together and flicked out from under the chin; two hands, palms down, slammed outwards) and Connor and Travis keeping just close enough to help, but far away enough that Nico couldn’t smack them.

“Will’s not here,” Kayla said when they came traipsing in.

“That sucks, but Nico’s been cursed. Can’t speak.” Connor pulled a face. “Nothing Hecate’s cabin can fix, apparently, but maybe you guys will have better luck. You want company?”

The last was addressed to Nico, who shook his head and spun his hand around in the direction of Connor and Travis.

“Wow, okay, bringing out the big guns.” Travis laughed and skipped out. “Alright, we get the point. Get well soon!”

Kayla came to sit down next to Nico, who allowed her presence due to a not so secret soft spot for the younger girl. “How did it happen? Who cursed you?”

He mimed playing a harp, and Kayla’s eyebrows shot up to her hairline. “Really? Why would he do that?”

The gesture Nico used was probably not something suitable for Kayla to be learning, and she wasn’t entirely sure how _he_ knew it, but it got the point across. “Yeah, okay, fair point. And you think we can reverse it?”

He shrugged. That one needed no explaining.

Turned out, Apollo’s curses lasted a _long_ time. Even Jason hadn’t got the full story from Nico yet, although judging by some of the conversations they had, it was probably for the best. Nico would only get himself cursed again.

Jason scratched at his nose and adjusted his glasses, peering at the Mythomagic cards littering Cabin 13’s floor. “I give up, this is ridiculously complicated.”

Nico rolled his eyes, but relented and dropped back against the cushions on the bed. He waved to get Jason’s attention, brought his pinched fingers to his mouth and pointed in the direction of town. He then made a special gesture that Jason recognised as the one he used for referring to Will; a drawn halo and rolled eyes.

“What? Oh, gotcha, you want Will to get you McDonalds. Sorry, not happening. You’ve had enough junk food.”

Nico promptly pouted and moved his hands beneath his chin, making a praying gesture.

“Okay, fine. Do you know where he is?”

Apparently not, so Jason set aside the insanely confusing card game and went off in search of Will, who was somehow one of the best drivers in camp for a reason that Jason was, quite frankly, too scared to ask at that point. How a fifteen year old could drive stick was a mystery to all.

“I like him when he’s mute,” Will said after Jason regaled him with the story. “He actually spent more than half an hour near me without us arguing the other day, would you believe it?”

“You two really need to kiss and make up,” Jason said, relinquishing his duties and running off to find Piper.

Will thought about that for a minute, shrugged, and said, “Eh, maybe. Ruins the fun, though.”

**Author's Note:**

> I promised.
> 
> Not being Italian I can't say for certain that any of the gestures I try to describe are correct, but I did my Googling and I hope it paid off.


End file.
